Deal or Basis for DCs? Advice Needed.
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
| Basis may have already invested heavily in the school building in terms of dollars spent. According to the DC.gov property Website, they bought the building for $14,000,000 in February 2012, and on top of they must have spent a good deal to renovate it. |
Anonymous
|
Basis has been working on and refining that model acceleration and the associated timetables and sequencing since the 1990s. - those programs are shown on the BASIS website - https://www.basisschools.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=94&Itemid=111 New poster with a 3rd grader who is IB for Deal but looking at BASIS. There must be plenty of parents like me out here. Interesting link, but I'm still not sure if I should take their course sequencing track record seriously. Not long ago, I taught humanities courses at a Western university where I mentored some BASIS Arizona graduates. They spoke well of their schools but none were standouts in my classes. I visited the building recently, where I had lunch in the cafeteria with a teacher I vaguely know. My impressions were superficial of course, but not the best. The scene was fairly chaotic, with young teachers chasing older kids around, scolding them to quiet down and stop shoving and tripping one another. The $14 million building seemed unfinished, bare and cramped, and the hallway scene was really loud. Kids were having lunch all over the place, including in the front office. I'm certainly not a booster or critic, but left wondering if this would be the right school for my son. I haven't visited Deal yet but will soon. |
Anonymous
|
If you're in bounds for Deal then maybe that's a good option for you. With regard to BASIS, yes, I'm sure there are some rowdy students - the product of the lack of discipline across the <sarcasm> fine </sarcasm> DCPS schools that said students came from and the life they have known up until 2 and a half months ago - which also impacts Deal (with DCPS feeders to include 40% OOB) and any other school in the district.
I agree it would be nice if they had a bigger building or one with a better layout, but they made the most of what they could, and again, that's the school board not playing nice, not making facilities available (they'd prefer buildings sit empty or end up going to cronies), and not sharing the same money per student as goes into the rest of the <black_hole>DCPS system</black_hole>. |
Anonymous
|
To 4:36: I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt on the tracking and/or providing challenging material to kids that are ready for it. SAT scores in the two Arizona schools that have been established for a while are Tucson 1,933 and Scottsdale 1,951. By comparison
Langley High School: 1812 James Madison High School: 1730 was George C. Marshall High School: 1702 McLean High School: 1755 Oakton High School: 1753 Thomas Jefferson High School for Science & Technology: 2186 Not quite in Jefferson’s’ league, but still. The generally Spartan building/facilities may be part of their plan. An article on other brand new basis schools mentioned that they are designed that way so that they will have more funding for academics. (Not a bad tradeoff.) Rowdiness is something different. Something that can undo even the best intentions and that hopefully something that Basis DC can work out. The school is still brand new and DC is probably one of the toughest places for basis to prove themselves. |
Anonymous
| I grew up going to urban schools in the southwest and while I can't speak specifically to BASIS, I can attest to the fact that they have their share of problem students in the southwest as well - particularly mexican gangs - Surenos and other cholos trying to work drug trade and assert control. We had our share of fights, gang wars, violence and drugs going on in the southwest. It's not as though southwestern schools are lilywhite and full of nothing but well-behaved, naive and backward, Bible-readin' white folks, it's not as though they have never had to deal with any problems. Meanwhile, on the scale of urban grit factor, DC has nothing on a lot of other, bigger US cities - DC's nothing really that special in terms of urban problems, others have faced far worse than what DC faces. |
Anonymous
Isn't Jefferson a Application High School? |
Anonymous
| Yes - Jefferson has test based admissions and residency requirements. |
Anonymous
Poster with the 3rd grader again. PP above, where do you come by these SAT stats? Thanks for those. I bet if you were to look at SAT scores for select groups of students within the above high schools, e.g. those pursuing the full IB diploma, or taking 6+ AP classes, as BASIS demands, average scores would be a good deal higher. Although I'm impressed with the Arizona scores, the rowdy scene I observed in the school hallways left me questioning the wisdom of letting in so many tough seeming 7th and 8th graders. BASIS surely won't be able to afford to phase out all the rowdies (they will need the per capita outlays to run the school, no?) and these kids are unlikely to help them market the curriculum to the parents of strong students, like us, as they years go by. What sort of SAT scores will we be seeing in four or five years then? We'll have to wait seven or eight years, once the current 5th graders have taken the SAT, for scores of 1700+? Average SAT scores for those admitted to my own alma mater are 2200+. My spouse thinks that we'll have to go private to aspire to such scores, while neighborhood friends are convinced that Wilson's academies would deliver, particularly if Deal starts to track for new subjects shortly. |
Anonymous
As a BASIS parent, I'm not so worried about BASIS phasing out the rowdies. I think there will be some percentage for example, who are failing the curriculum, who stand either not passing comprehensives or actually even being moved downward by a grade, so some students will likely self-select out of the school - and serial troublemakers will likely be expelled before long. There are a lot of parents still looking to get their students into BASIS, any who leave will quickly be replaced, and the culture at the school is already rapidly being established. If you are looking for 2200+ then you probably won't find that at any school anywhere near DC, you are looking for a very specialized and unique type of private school. |
Anonymous
This is a surprising error for a BASIS parent. |
Anonymous
| How many schools in the area boast 2200+ average SAT scores? I'd be surprised if it were even one, but if it were one, that would be unique, and no doubt constrained by very specific parameters such as selective admissions and other things more likely to be found in a private than a public charter open to anyone. |
Anonymous
^^ I recall Thomas Jefferson coming up as highest in the nation, and they weren't at 2200+ so yes, it's pretty much a moot question of such a school's existence, unless someone would like to post some comprehensive listings of average scores for schools. |
Anonymous
|
^Sadly, nobody seems to compile or publish a comprehensive list of top SAT scores by high school nationally, or one listing advanced school-within-a-school programs, like the IB.
Do a Google search for "Best high school SAT scores" and all you can find is a list of the private boarding schools with average SAT scores above 2000, there are nearly 20. I'd like to see a list of public school SAT scores, especially for the 8 NYC magnet schools using the SSAT 8th grade admissions test. You can also go to Cappax College Insider site to find a list of colleges with average SAT scores for enrolled students. There are 21 schools on the list with scores above 2000 but only two with scores of 2100 or higher. Cal Tech leads with a 2180 average and Harvard with 2100. In a nutshell, there are only a handful of high schools and colleges where almost all students have scored 700 or higher on each of the three sections of the SAT. This means that BASIS' average SAT scores are indeed impressive but not stellar. It seems to me that the combination of weak support for advanced learners at the elementary level in both DCPS and DC Charter, lack of selective admissions middle school programs in the city, and over-enrolled AP courses in DCPS high schools and Latin (meaning that many average students sit alongside the best) doesn't bode well for SAT scores in DC. We're very unlikely to see average SAT scores above, say, 1800, at any school for a long time. Not at Latin, not at BASIS. |
Anonymous
| By definition if even a majority of kids were scoring above 2000 the test would then be too easy. The point of the scaling of the scores is to see the range for schools to choose. Lots of reasons why SAT should not have that role, but it is not meant to reflect that everyone can get that high score. |
Anonymous
Don't be too sure of that - from the WaPo top schools in the nation list, the BASIS schools in Arizona are above 1800 - http://www.tucsonsentinel.com/local/report/060412_az_basis_schools/basis-tucson-tops-national-high-school-rankings/ No. 1: BASIS Tucson Four-year graduation rate: 100 percent Average ACT score: 30.33 Average SAT score: 1,933 Enrollment: 662 Students attending four-year colleges: 100 percent No. 5: BASIS Scottsdale Four-year graduation rate: 100 percent Average ACT score: 28 Average SAT score: 1,951 Enrollment: 121 Students attending four-year colleges: 100 percent They are following the same model in DC. |